This Week: North Dakota finishes its three-week road stint with a trip on Friday to Macomb, Ill., taking on Western Illinois at 3 p.m. UND then heads to Ames, Iowa for a match against a Big 12 opponent in Iowa State Sunday at noon.

Last Time Out: In the second weekend of action, North Dakota found itself in a tough match against a strong Creighton team on Aug. 30. The Bluejays only scored one goal in the first 45 minutes of play, but turned up the pressure in the second half, scoring five goals to down UND, 6-0. In the second game of the weekend, North Dakota took on Nebraska Omaha, Sept. 1. UND kept the game scoreless at half, but failed to find the back of the net as the Mavericks took the game by a score of 2-0. Goalkeeper Kristi Hestdalen made a total of 16 saves over the weekend, including 12 against Creighton.

Live Coverage: Live stats for Friday’s contest against Western Illinois are available at GoLeathernecks.com and live stats for Sunday’s game against Iowa State are available at Cyclones.com.

Free live audio is available for all UND home action and, new in 2013, live video webcasts of select home matches will be available with a UND Insider subscription at UNDsports.com.

Social Media: Receive daily coverage by following @UNDsoccer, the official Twitter account of the University of North Dakota soccer program. For additional coverage, follow assistant media relations director/soccer contact Ross LaDue at @rladue.

For more UND Athletics information, follow @UNDsports.

About Western Illinois: The Leathernecks went 1-1 at the Green Bay Phoenix Invitational last weekend, dropping a 3-1 decision to Green Bay before besting Northern Iowa, 2-1. During the opening weekend of play, WIU also split its games, defeating Northwestern in double overtime, 2-1, and losing to UND’s Sunday opponent Iowa State, 2-0. Freshman Tyra Markey leads the Leathernecks with two goals and one assist. Senior goalkeeper Laura Atkinson has played every minute in net so far, allowing seven goals and making 25 saves.

vs Western Illinois: Last year’s match in Grand Forks (Sept. 16, 2012) was the first meeting between the two teams. Western Illinois won, 3-1, after out-shooting UND 22-6. WIU returns seven starters, and a total of 15 players, from the game against UND last season. Amanda Dahl scored in the second minute of the game to give UND an early lead, but UND scored three goals in the final 19 minutes to hand North Dakota the loss.

About Iowa State: The Cyclones are coming off their first loss of the season, a 1-0 decision to Minnesota. ISU started the season with a 3-0 record, posting wins over South Dakota State, South Dakota and Western Illinois.

Iowa State plays at in-state rival Iowa on Friday before returning home to host UND.

Senior forward Jennifer Dominguez leads the Cyclones with two goals and one assist. Senior midfielder Erin Green has two goals on the season.

vs Iowa State: Sunday’s match will be the first meeting between the two sides.

New Beginnings: This season marks the dawn of a new era for UND soccer under first-year coach Matt Kellogg (Butler ‘00), who inherits a team that went 2-13-1 overall and 0-9 in the Big Sky last season.

Kellogg spent the previous three seasons as head women’s soccer coach at NCAA Division II Ferris State University. Prior to that, he served as assistant women’s soccer coach and recruiting coordinator at a pair of NCAA Division I schools, Morehead (Ky.) State University and the University of Kentucky.

Kellogg took over a Ferris State team that went 3-13-3 in the year prior to his arrival and led the Bulldogs to the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Tournament in each of his three seasons at the helm. In 2012, FSU went 9-7-3 and advanced to the GLIAC semifinals for only the second time in program history.

In 2009, Kellogg’s lone season at Morehead State, the Eagles captured the program’s first-ever Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) regular season championship with a 5-0-3 conference record (8-7-4 overall).

At Kentucky, Kellogg served as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator during the 2007 and 2008 campaigns. Prior to his stint at UK, Kellogg spent three seasons (2004-07) as an assistant coach at Western Michigan University.

Looking to snap the streak: North Dakota enters the weekend looking for its first win of the season and wanting to snap a 15-game winless streak which extends back to Sept. 9, 2012. The last win for UND came on Sept. 7, 2012 against South Dakota State, 3-1 in Grand Forks.

Beckwith, a midfielder from Henderson, Nev., had appeared in 22 career games through her first two seasons at UND. This year she’ll be joined on the roster by her younger sister, freshman midfielder Ashlee Beckwith.

Dahl, a senior forward from Redmond, Wash., scored one goal in 16 games last season and was a second-team All-Great West Conference performer in 2011.

Jung, a senior midfielder from Sandy, Utah, leads all active UND players with 53 career games played. She played in all 16 games a year ago and registered one assist.

Scherer, a midfielder from Fargo, N.D., is UND’s top returning scorer after collecting a career-high two goals and five points in 2012. After playing at center back in the opening weekend against Xavier and Akron, she was named to the Boilermaker Challenge Cup All-Tournament Team.

By the numbers: UND returns 15 letterwinners and six starters from last year’s team.

The returning letterwinner breakdown includes five forwards, five midfielders, four defenders and one goalkeeper.

Playing for keeps: Goalkeeper Kristi Hestdalen (Jr., Pierre, S.D.), one of UND’s six returning starters, is back after a standout sophomore campaign.

Hestdalen ranked second in the Big Sky in saves per game (6.06) and total saves (97) in 2012, the latter ranking fifth in UND single-season history.

Hestdalen also upped her career saves total to 201 through only two seasons, which has her on the brink of breaking UND’s all time record as a junior:Hestdalen also ranks third all time at UND with five career shutouts, her most recent coming in a 4-0 win over Minnesota Crookston last August:

Hello, my name is: UND welcomes to the fold nine newcomers in 2013, including nine incoming freshmen and one sophomore transfer.

The transfer is forward Asia Laudal (Eau Claire, Wis.), who spent her freshman season at Green Bay.